The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Walter Scott of Bradford. The image is a glossy real photograph. The card was posted in Llandudno using a 2d. stamp on Tuesday the 29th. June 1943. It was sent to:
Mr. & Mrs. Haig,
25, Park Road,
Stretford,
Nr. Manchester.
The pencilled message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"2, Morfa Road,
West Shore,
Llandudno.
Dear Albert and Gerty,
Just a line to say we are
having a nice time - very
warm and sunny.
Wish you were here.
Plenty of room and plenty
of queues for food, but we
haven't gone much short.
Your affectionate friends,
John & Amelie."
Lots and Lots of Coca Cola
So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?
Well, on the 29th. June 1943, in advance of the Allied invasion of Sicily, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allied Supreme Commander, sent a cablegram from North Africa requesting:
"On early convoy ... a shipment of three million
bottled Coca-Cola (filled) and complete equipment
for bottling, washing, capping same quantity
twice monthly.
The Coca-Cola Company sent "technical observers" to assist in the operation.
A Verbal Attack on Jesse H. Jones
Also on that day, U.S. Vice-President Henry A. Wallace made "an ill-considered speech" that attacked U.S. Secretary of Commerce Jesse H. Jones.
The speech, which some historians cite as a factor in President Roosevelt's decision to select another running mate for the 1944 election, may have cost Wallace the Presidency on Roosevelt's death in April 1945.
Little Eva
The 29th. June 1943 also marked the birth of Little Eva.
Eva Narcissus Boyd, known by her stage name of Little Eva, was an American singer, well known for her 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion".
-- Little Eva - The Early Years and "The Loco-Motion"
Boyd was born in Belhaven, North Carolina on the 29th. June 1943 and had twelve siblings. At the age of fifteen, she moved to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York.
As a teenager, Boyd worked as a maid, and earned extra money as a babysitter for songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin (including for the young Louise Goffin).
It is often claimed that Goffin and King were amused by Boyd's particular dancing style, so they wrote "The Loco-Motion" for her and had her record it as a demo (the record was originally intended for Dee Dee Sharp).
However, as Carole King recalled, they knew she could sing when they met her, and it would be just a matter of time before they would have her record songs they wrote, the most successful being "The Loco-Motion".
Music producer Don Kirshner of Dimension Records was impressed by the song and by Boyd's voice, and had it released. The song reached No. 1 in the United States in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
However after the success of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd was stereotyped as a dance-craze singer, and was given limited material.
The same year, Goffin and King wrote "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" (performed by the Crystals) after discovering that Boyd was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend.
When they inquired why she tolerated such treatment, Eva replied without batting an eyelid that her boyfriend's actions were motivated by his love for her.
Boyd's other single recordings were "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby", "Let's Turkey Trot", and a remake of the Bing Crosby standard "Swinging on a Star", recorded with Big Dee Irwin (though Boyd was not credited on the label).
Boyd also recorded the song "Makin' With the Magilla" for an episode of the 1964 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series The Magilla Gorilla Show.
-- The Assassination of JFK
In 1963, American Bandstand signed Boyd with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour, and she was set to perform for the tour's 15th. show, scheduled for the night of the 22nd. November 1963 at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas.
The Friday evening event was suddenly cancelled, moments after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while touring Dallas in an open car caravan.
-- Little Eva - The Later Years
Boyd continued to tour and record throughout the sixties, but her commercial appeal plummeted after 1964. She retired from the music industry in 1971.
Boyd never owned the rights to her recordings. Although the prevailing rumor in the 1970's was that she had received only $50 for "The Loco-Motion", it seems $50 was actually her weekly salary at the time she made her records (an increase of $15 from what Goffin and King had been paying her as nanny).
Penniless, Boyd returned with her three young children to North Carolina, where they lived in obscurity.
Interviewed in 1988 after the success of the Kylie Minogue recording of "The Loco-Motion", Boyd stated that she did not like the new version; however, its then-current popularity allowed her to make a comeback in show business.
Boyd returned to live performing with other artists of her era on the cabaret and oldies circuits. She also occasionally recorded new songs.
-- The Death and Legacy of Little Eva
Boyd continued performing until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in October 2001. She died on the 10th. April 2003, in Kinston, North Carolina, at the age of 59.
She was laid to rest in a small cemetery in Belhaven, North Carolina. Boyd's gravesite was sparsely marked until July 2008, when a report by WRAL-TV of Raleigh, North Carolina, highlighted deteriorating conditions at the cemetery and efforts by the city of Belhaven to have it restored.
A simple white cross had marked the site until a new gravestone was unveiled in November 2008. Boyd's new grey gravestone has the image of a steam locomotive prominently engraved on the front, and the epitaph reads:
"Singing with the Angels".
The only existing footage of Little Eva performing "Loco-Motion" is a small clip from the ABC 1960's live show Shindig! wherein she sang a short version of the clip along with the famous dance steps.
She also sang "Let's Turkey Trot" and the Exciters' song "I Want You to Be My Boy" in the same episode.
This TV show was one of Boyd's final performances until 1988, when she began performing in concerts with Bobby Vee and other singers.
In a 1991 Richard Nader concert, she performed "Loco-Motion" and "Keep Your Hands Off My Baby". The concert was partially documented on videotape, albeit of marginal quality.
